Click Here To Help Improving This Blog !Search more, you’ll find more. This principle perfectly applies to aviation resources on the web. I use to bookmark interesting aviation sites to later share them on this blog. There is a drawback in doing that: the list grows quickly, and I don’t want to turn this blog into “PlasticSurfer”. So here is the first […]
After last landing of the day, the engineering and maintenance teams take care of the airliners. Problems reported by the pilots are examined, and various preventive checks are done. Heavier periodical maintenance is planned well in advance, but each night, planes undergo some maintenance.
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine invited me to […]
Approach routes are defined as segments - straight or arc of circles - each with a minimal altitude. The steps can be of various length and the descents have various slopes. The design of procedures is influenced by three main factors:
Obstacles
Airspace design - keep departures and arrivals apart
Noise sensitive area
As long as the prescribed altitudes […]
Air France is testing an in-flight system allowing passengers to use their cell-phones in flight. The initial phase is limited to text messages and data transfer, but in three months phase two will make phone calls possible.
Technically speaking the system is based on a relay located in the cabin. Because of its proximity this special […]
Will you spend Christmas day or New Year’s day in an airliner ? If yes, try not to be a grumpy passenger - away from home for the best time of year.
I know this situation first hand, I was once on duty on the 31st of December evening, starting work at 11PM. Years ago, I […]
Some will call me heretic to raise such a question, but I’ve no taboos. On short distance trips the competition between train and plane is intense and flying is not always the good decision. I said short distance but as a traveller what matters is time, and even if train is slower total time of […]
US Airways decided to give a bonus (100 $… woooow) to their ground staff if they reach two objectives : 60% of flights departing on time, and less than 7 miss-handling per 1000 piece of baggage.
This may sound like a good incentive, and I wish them success, but I hope they have much more ambitious […]
A Boeing 737 departing London Stansted airport flew for 6 miles at 500 feet (150 meters) above ground only, before climing to a safer altitude. This incident occured on 16th of October 2006, and the report has been published last week.
Shortly said, the crew misinterpreted a note meaning “don’t turn below 500 feet” and thought […]
Airline passengers have rights in case of delay or flight cancellation, even if airlines are not communicating a lot about it… guess why. European regulations updated on 17 February 2005 include compensations up to the full price of the ticket !
Any victim (oops, passenger) has to claim for his rights. Yes, airlines do infrom passengers, […]
Some British Airways planes crossed the Atlantic recently with no passengers on board, and the media made big buzz about it, using words like “scoop”, “revelation”, “scandal”, and so on. Let’s try to have a fair look at it, getting back to facts.
BA could not take passengers on board these flights because of cabin crew […]
